Science For Everyone - Hurricane Island Foundationhttp://www.hurricaneisland.net/science-for-everyone/Wed, 22 Nov 2017 13:55:27 +0000en-USSite-Server v6.0.0-13637-13637 (http://www.squarespace.com)Science For Everyone Explore the latest science news in the Gulf of Maine, <br/>our ongoing research projects, Information about STEM and science <br/>education, and the natural history and phenology of Hurricane Islandscience-for-everyonehttps://feedburner.google.comNeCSA Annual Meeting...the Network Continues!Phoebe JekielekWed, 22 Nov 2017 14:00:05 +0000http://www.hurricaneisland.net/science-for-everyone/necsa-annual-meeting-the-network-continues523afbaee4b0f0c5f10b6ffe:523b039fe4b09b3c6765f4c6:5a1581cfec212d9bd3502f73On Thursday, November 16 and Friday, November 17, I attended the annual meeting of the Northeastern Coastal Stations Alliance (NeCSA), a network of field stations and marine labs in the Gulf of Maine. We founded the network in partnership with Bates and Bowdoin Colleges in 2015 with funding from a National Science Foundation Field Station and Marine Laboratories planning grant.

This meeting focused on revising our intertidal monitoring protocol that member stations implemented in the summer or fall of 2017. We also delved into data management and other considerations for making our data accessible for other researchers, educational purposes and to the public. Our overarching goal for joint monitoring is to be able to track changes in the Gulf of Maine across the spatial extent of our coastal stations which range from the Isles of Shoals on the border between New Hampshire and Maine to Bon Portage Island in Canada. We are in the midst of trying to figure out how to work together to collect, manage and analyze data.

In 2016, we deployed temperature loggers in the intertidal and then in the summer and fall of 2017, we set permanent transect sites and collected data about the intertidal community, including presence or absence and abundance. On Thursday, we discussed observations from this year’s fieldwork as well as revisions to the protocol and ideas for training individuals in identifying species and implementing the methods. Lack of man or woman-power was a major issue many of our stations faced. The transects just take time and people. We brainstormed creative ways to engage communities, students, and others in the implementation of our protocol. Schoodic Institute modified their training and data sheet for citizen scientists to head into the field and collect the data.

Another potential opportunity for interesting research is to connect our Kelp Ecosystem Ecology Network (KEEN) subtidal monitoring to our NeCSA intertidal monitoring (Check out our blog post here!). The Hurricane research team already implements the KEEN protocol at three sites: Pemaquid Point in partnership with Marissa McMahan at Manomet, Hurricane Island and Schoodic Point. The latter two sites are already NeCSA monitoring sites. By linking our subtidal with our intertidal sites, we may be able to track shifts in community composition with rising sea levels or other changes in the environment. We haven’t quite figured out how to do this yet, but we’re hoping to work on it and get more NeCSA stations involved in KEEN monitoring.

The meeting was a success and as always, it was fun to see everyone and hear how their field seasons went. We’re planning to meet again in March at Bigelow so stay tuned!

An exercise where participants brainstormed concerns and opportunities for sharing data. Photo by Matthew Jadud, Bates College

This year is the second year that Hurricane Island has been part of the Kelp Ecosystem Ecology Network (KEEN). KEEN is a global network of scientists who are assessing the impacts of global change on kelp forests. Kelp forests are an important ecosystem because they provide a complex habitat that supports a high diversity of marine organisms. Through KEEN, scientists across the world are using a standardized SCUBA sampling protocol to observe kelp forests over time and understand how resistant they are with rapidly changing oceanic conditions.

Bailey and I swimming along the transect while completing the swath protocol – a survey dedicated to looking at abundance of large invertebrates and demersal cryptic fish

As a member of KEEN, we conduct five different protocols along four transects at each site we survey. Each protocol focuses on a different part of the ecosystem to determine abundance and percent cover of common invertebrates, algae and fish, as well as the size distribution and biomass of kelp. Last year, we surveyed one site on the north end of Hurricane Island. This year, our involvement in KEEN grew, as we added a second site on Schoodic Peninsula. Schoodic Peninsula is located further down east in Maine, and we conducted our surveys in the part of the peninsula that is Acadia National Park. In addition to the two sites we managed, we helped Northeastern University complete surveys at their site on Pemaquid Point.

I’m placing a quadrat along our transect for the quadrat protocol in which we count the number of kelp fronds and invertebrates in a 1m2 quadrat

One exciting part about surveying multiple sites for KEEN is being able to see the changes in species distribution and ecosystem characteristics over a small distance. At Schoodic, we saw much more coralline algae compared to what is present both at Hurricane and Pemaquid. Another species of interest was Dasysiphonia japonica, an invasive filamentous red algae that originates from Japan. Dasysiphonia japonica has recently been seen in large quantities along much of the Maine coast and has been taking over areas previously dominated by kelp ecosystems. During our surveys at both Pemaquid Point and on Hurricane Island, Dasysiphonia japonica was one of the most commonly spotted species, but at Schoodic, we did not see any Dasysiphonia japonica, a sign possibly indicating that the algae has not yet invaded further down east the Maine coast.

Our transect running through a bed of Saccharina “sugar kelp”, the most common type of kelp we find around Hurricane Island

Personally, my favorite site to dive was at Schoodic Peninsula because I had never been to Schoodic before and it has long been on my list of places to visit in Maine. Although where we were diving in Schoodic is also part of Acadia National Park, it could not have felt more different than the part of Acadia located on Mount Desert Island. Schoodic is more remote with much less visitor traffic. The diving was also unique, dominated by a substrate of pink granite boulders and ledges covered in coralline algae

Although the protocols are the same at each site, each site felt new and exciting because we worked with different divers and saw a variety of unique species. Between all three sites, the Hurricane Island dive team completed 12 transects for KEEN monitoring in 10 different dives along the coast of Maine!

Alca I. moored at Hurricane Island in late July. Photo courtesy of David Conover

Just over a month ago, Hurricane was fortunate enough to host the Alca I. and its amazing crew of scientists as they made their way across the Gulf of Maine conducting research on dramatic changes occurring in our oceans. The Alca I. is a three-masted motor schooner that was specifically built for oceanographic expeditions by Dr. Walter Adey, a research scientist with the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. After construction was finished 2003, the Alca I. has been traveling across the North Atlantic on a variety of expeditions focused on distribution of a variety of seaweeds. The current expedition is being run in conjunction with Drs. Thew Suskiewicz and Doug Rasher, who are continuing the research that Dr. Adey started over 50 years ago.

The vessel had a rotating crew and we were excited to have Dr. Suskiewicz come ashore to give a presentation to our students while the vessel was moored at Hurricane. The Advanced Marine Biology students learned about the changing nature of the Gulf of Maine, particularly related to the changing seaweed communities due to successive overharvesting of a variety of marine species (e.g., large finfish, urchins). It was amazing to hear how few large urchins they were able to find on their current expedition in the lower subtidal zones compared to the last expedition that saw almost nothing but urchin barrens (example video from Southern California).

You can learn more about about their work and help support the current expedition by visiting their gofundme site.

What went in last fall as the size of my fingertip now fills the palm of my hand. With an average growth rate of 0.07mm per day, our baby scallops spent the past year slowly filling up the bottom cages they were placed in. The added size means, just like for my brother and I growing up, that more personal space is needed. We have been keeping our density around 30% and the scallops are now spread throughout 4 bottom cages and 2 lantern nets. We even had a student from Georgetown join our research team for the day and help us with the time-consuming task of taking monthly growth measurements and transferring them to new, more spacious cages. The help was so appreciated! Everyone should come out and take a look for themselves! They seem to be at their peak teenage phase and very active. There is nothing like the joy on someone’s face as they watch a scallop swim for the first time or hold it in their hand while it utilizes its powerful adductor muscle to clap rapidly.

Our second year class keeps on growin'!

Our charismatic tiny-fauna will undergo monthly cleanings of the mesh and cage structures, as algae and barnacles grow prolifically during the warmer months. We are really starting to feel like farmers! Especially taking into consideration all the new spat we’ve collected this year, our sea farm and the gear required to make it operational are growing in step with the scallops. Our goal is to ear hang them in the fall once they’ve grown a little larger! Stay tuned.

Tracking the growth rates of tagged scallops

This weekend even marked an exciting field trip for a lucky handful of little scallops. Hurricane Island hosted a booth at the Chebeague Aquaculture Festival, giving visitors a chance to look a farmed scallop in the eyes and learn about our goals of research and education through on-island aquaculture. We were joined by an excellent array of speakers, growers, cooks, entrepreneurs, and enthusiastic members of the public! And while those coast-traversing scallops are safely back in their cages now, I think they may miss the taste of warm, growth-conducive water they were briefly given.

Students sort and identify their net contents using field guides and macro-lenses so they could gather count data for various freshwater macroinvertebrate families.

The word ecology comes from the Greek words oikos meaning “the family household” and logy meaning “study of.” This past week High School Island Ecology (HSIE) got to explore the world of freshwater macroinvertebrates.

Our ambitious high school students studied the households of our freshwater macroinvebrate communities by sampling in both the Ice Pond and one of the old foundation ponds and compared what they found in each.

Invertebrates are extremely important for all ecosystems and make up 96% of animal species. The freshwater macroinvertebrates, defined as spineless animals that can be seen with the naked eye, on Hurricane are responsible for the breakdown and cycling of nutrients within their ponds similarly to the ways in which earthworms allow for the cycling of nutrients in soil. The species we were studying feed on autochthonous detritus, decaying organic matter that has come from flowering plants, mosses, or algae and is typically high in its cellulous content.

Dragonfly larvae will molt between 5 and 14 times before it is ready to emerge as an adult dragonfly (Image from Shropshire Dragonflies)

Many freshwater invertebrates act as indicator species of habitat health allowing for the process of biomonitoring. Dragonfly nymphs, for example are very sensitive to pollutants and their presence in a freshwater system indicates that that body of water is relatively clean and free of contaminates. Don’t let the adult dragonfly’s beauty bewitch you; they are fearsome predators who, in their larval form, look like the aliens of horror movie fame. Dragonfly larvae have extendable jaws called labium that they thrust out towards their prey. Equipped with sharp bristles and pincers, once a prey item is in the grasp of a dragonfly nymph it has little hope. These nymphs have even been known to hunt and capture freshwater fish 10x larger than they are. Upon careful study students noted that the most prevalent family of dragonfly in the Ice Pond were the Libellulidae or Skimmer dragonflies. One student even remarked that the nymphs he was finding appeared to be the inspiration behind Predator, the 1987 science fiction action horror film. Who says science can’t be cool?!

Fingernail clams are so small they are easy to misidentify as pieces of sediment, however, our observant HSIE students were able to sort through quite a few. (Image from the Natural Environment Research Council)

Closely related to their marine bivalve cousins, the scallops, the freshwater environments on Hurricane are rife with Sphaeriidae otherwise known as fingernail or pea clams. The HSIE students pulled dozens of these tiny bivalves up in their nets from the soft substrate of the ice pond. When sorting through the muck in our nets the fingernail clams looked like little pearls that had burrowed into the surrounding leaf litter. Fingernail clams have a lifespan of 1-3 years but can reach maturity as rapidly as at one month old. One of the reason fingernail clams are so prevalent in freshwater environments is that they can burrow up to 25 cm into soft sediment and therefore are able to avoid desiccation (drying out) for several months at a time.

The Humpless Case Maker Caddisflies (Brachycentridae) construct four sided tapering cases made of thinly stacked spruce needles gathered from the environment around them and cemented together with their own spit. These freshwater engineers use whatever is in the environment around them to construct a protective shell and feed by clinging to decaying logs in their environment and filtering small particles of organic matter from the surrounding water. Intriguingly we found more caddisfly larvae in the foundation pond than we did in the Ice Pond. Determining what factors lead to this difference in distribution could be a potentially fruitful area for inquiry by future program participants!

HSIE returned to the Ice Pond later in the week for the raft challenge and as students constructed and tested their rafts they discussed the creatures they now knew lived beneath its murky waters. Their splashes and kicks in the pond, as they moved their rafts across, allowed these young ecologists to become part of the Ice Pond ecosystem by aerating the water, which in turn increased its dissolved oxygen content allowing the pond to hopefully support a greater diversity and abundance of macroinvertebrates.

]]>Aliens in the Ice Pond: What Macroinvertebrates Can Tell Us About Our Freshwater EnvironmentsAquaculture from Maine to MadagascarJennifer PageThu, 20 Jul 2017 19:44:26 +0000http://www.hurricaneisland.net/science-for-everyone/2017/7/20/aquaculture-from-maine-to-madagascar523afbaee4b0f0c5f10b6ffe:523b039fe4b09b3c6765f4c6:5971065e46c3c4c24a0b58bdGuest blog post by Research Technician Bailey Moritz

Baby sea cucumbers ready to grow!

Building new sea cucumber pens in the tidal flats

This spring, before returning to Hurricane, I spent 3 months on a much larger island- Madagascar, that is- as an Aquaculture Intern with Reef Doctor, an organization working on many fronts to address extreme poverty and rapidly dwindling fisheries in villages along the southwestern coast of the African country. The Vezo, whose name means “people of the sea”, rely almost entirely on fishing everything from octopus to parrotfish to sea turtles to make a living and provide food for their household. But as population increases, extra pressure on an already overfished reef system risks leaving people without a source of income. Boats already come in empty, and many have resorted to dragging mosquito nets along the beach, which catch even the smallest juvenile fish. While damage to the ecosystem and marine populations are grim, you cannot simply tell people to stop fishing. Instead, Reef Doctor has set up community run seaweed and sea cucumber aquaculture farms in villages all around the Bay to provide an alternative livelihood that is sustainable both for the ocean and the people depending on it.

A globally prevalent seaweed for carrageenan extraction, Kappaphycus alvarezii, is grown on longlines that create habitat for small fish and squid. We rowed out to the farms and assisted with almost daily cleaning of sediment build up that would inhibit growth and checked for damaging invasive epiphytic algae. Ranging from bright green to brown while growing, it dries into a beautiful purple color and is bagged and sold by the kilo to a local processor. The sea cucumbers, called “sand fish”, are farmed in near shore plastic mesh pens. It takes about a year to raise them to market size at which time they are salted and shipped to Asian buyers. Families participating in the sea cucumber program have seen an average increase of 2.53 USD/day of income. I got to help build and stock pens for 20 new farmers since the program has shown so much success. The great thing about sea cucumbers is, just like shellfish, they broadcast spawn, meaning they release their eggs into the ocean and can actually contribute to wild population numbers. I was very impressed with how well both forms of aquaculture were integrated into the local villages and the benefits already accrued after just 3 years of operating!

Wooden canoes called "pirogues" traditionally used for everyday fishing

For me, the parallels to aquaculture in Maine and the role it serves were evident. While sturdy mooring buoys replace the recycled plastic water bottles of Mada, seaweed farming has been bringing a viable source of alternative income to Maine’s fishermen who already have much of the gear and on-the-water knowledge needed to be successful. While waters warm in the Gulf of Maine and threaten lobster catches, coastal communities here need something they can turn to or fall back on in case the wild-caught fishery they work in crashes. Right now, both Maine and Madagascar farms are being driven by community members who are excited about the potential it holds and recognize the need for a livelihood that helps to improve the ecosystem rather than only extract from it. And in both communities, there is an important role for researchers to play in carrying out experiments with the goal of optimizing growth under local conditions and training farmers on the best methods to utilize for success. While never a silver bullet, my time in Madagascar taught me that aquaculture can and actively is addressing environmental and social problems in communities all across the globe.

As an Environmental Studies major at Colby College, my recent alma matter, seniors are not required to complete a honors thesis in order to graduate. Up until the summer before my senior year, I had no intention of voluntarily undertaking such a daunting task - but that was before I spent a summer on Hurricane Island as the Research Intern working on the Maine Midcoast Collaborative Scallop Project. Throughout last summer, I become involved in all aspects of the research project including data collection, processing, and educating students and visitors about our research. With Cait’s encouragement, and the help of my advisor at Colby, I decided to tackle a small piece of this project as my senior honors thesis.

Placopecten magellanicus

My thesis focused specifically on Placopecten magellanicus “sea scallop” larval dynamics inside and outside the Lower Muscle Ridge closure area. Through my research, I aimed to answer the questions: has larval abundance changed over the three-year closure period and does it vary inside the closure area as compared to adjacent fished areas? The data I used to answer these questions came directly from the spat bags we deploy in the Muscle Ridge area as a metric to gauge larval abundance. Much of my summer last year was spent counting and measuring scallops from the spat bags, and it was exciting to take the next step in the research process by analyzing the data I had spent so much time collecting.

Completing my thesis was not easy work, and there were definitely times of frustration, but those were outweighed by the numerous positive moments and opportunities that came as a result of my thesis. As part of my work to understand current patterns in the Muscle Ridge Channel to determine likely directions of larval transport I interviewed scallop and lobster fishers from the Midcoast area about their perceptions of prevailing current patterns. Talking to the fishers and hearing their perspectives added a separate aspect to my project and exposed me to the world of social science research.

In April, I had the opportunity to present at the International Pectinid Workshop. This is an annual, international conference on all things regarding scallops. This year, it happened to take place in Portland, Maine, which made it easy for me to attend and present. IPW was the first scientific conference I had attended, and it was an incredible experience to hear from scientists across the world present their research on topics including fishery closures, gear modifications, management plans, scallop aquaculture, diseases and much more. Being at the conference also allowed me to interact and talk with senior researchers and graduate students which gave me a window into the many opportunities that are available should my interests remain within the scallop world.

Presenting my thesis at the Colby Liberal Arts Symposium (CLAS)

While the thesis experience as a whole was filled with challenges and rewards, the most fulfilling part of my thesis, (besides printing the final draft!) was presenting my work at the Colby Liberal Arts Symposium (CLAS), an annual event at the end of the spring semester when classes are cancelled and the entire day is dedicated to the research students from all years, majors, and disciplines have conducted during the past year. During the session devoted to Environmental Studies thesis presentations, I was able to talk about my work in front of peers, professors, roommates, friends, and family. This presentation allowed me to share my academic work outside of the research setting and communicate my research to friends who previously, only thought about scallops under the category of delicious seafood. CLAS is always a wonderful day filled with presentations, poster sessions, speech contests, music performances and art shows, and it was extremely rewarding to present my thesis and share my work with the greater Colby community.

Returning to Hurricane Island this summer as the Research Assistant has allowed me to continue working on the both the Midcoast Maine Collaborative Scallop Project as well as adding another year of data to my analysis. I’m excited to be back for a second summer to continue this work, be a part of the Hurricane community and enjoy all the benefits that stem from living on a beautiful island in Penobscot Bay!

Taking our first phytoplankton sample of the season at our aquaculture site

As waters begin to warm (although it may not feel that way yet!) and nutrients become more abundant, phytoplankton are beginning to bloom off our Maine shores. Seen under the microscope, these tiny algae that make up the base of the ocean food chain form a beautiful kaleidoscope of varied shapes. Some take on the appearance of beaded necklaces or tiny leaves, while others call food to mind with their turnip or pizza slice like forms. However, a number of species can produce toxins that, when consumed by humans eating filter-feeding shellfish, prove quite harmful. “Red tide” as it is commonly called when concentrations are high enough to change the surface water color, builds up in the mussels or clams that feed on it for several weeks. If eaten by someone, the built-up toxin can cause paralytic, diuretic, or amnesic shellfish poisoning (PSP, DSP, or ASP), depending on the phytoplankton species present.

Target species (yellow) to keep an eye out for

The Department of Marine Resources (DMR) regularly tests sites up and down the coast to make sure that an area with a harmful algal bloom will be closed to shellfish harvesting in time to minimize health risks. They rely on volunteer monitoring efforts to make this a success, and we got certified as official phyto-samplers last week. Out on Hurricane, we are sampling weekly at our aquaculture site to report back to DMRs public health branch on the presence of any of these potentially harmful species. If the water is consistently clear of harmful algal blooms over time, we may eventually be able to consume the scallops that we grow here.

An array of different species, including thin chains of Pseudo-nitzschia

Our first sample this week had plenty to look at and I found it so rewarding and fun to learn the species identification. There was a surprising amount of Pseudo-nitzschiawhich can lead to ASP, although the toxin is not always produced. That will be something to keep an eye on and we sent a report in to DMR. Monitoring coastal waters for changes in phytoplankton populations is critical for protecting those of us who enjoy eating shellfish, the people who grow or harvest them, and to stay vigilant for new species that are moving northward due to climate change.

]]>Phytoplankton MonitoringResearch field season wrap upCaitlin CleaverThu, 03 Nov 2016 17:45:49 +0000http://www.hurricaneisland.net/science-for-everyone/2016/11/3/research-field-season-wrap-up523afbaee4b0f0c5f10b6ffe:523b039fe4b09b3c6765f4c6:581b76c1f5e231257250f4d6Hurricane Island’s research team had quite the field season. We initiated a few new projects while continuing our archaeology efforts and conducted the fourth year of surveys for the Collaborative Scallop Project. Overall, it was a fantastic island season with an incredible team. As always, our Director of Marketing, Phoebe Jekielek, joined us above and below the water throughout the season. Bailey Moritz, a recent graduate of Bowdoin College was our seasonal research assistant and Jessie Batchelder, a current senior at Colby College, was our research intern. They will both be greatly missed! Some of the season’s highlights included:

The Collaborative Scallop Project

The tagged scallops from our spat bags whose growth we will be tracking

In July and August, we conducted our SCUBA dive surveys on Muscle Ridge and Ocean Point. Our goals were to document juvenile and adult densities and to collect individual scallops for tissue samples for genetics and the shells for a growth rate analysis. For the first time ever, we completed our dive days by the end of August!! In past years, we’ve had to do dive surveys through the fall and even as late as November 29th, so this was a very welcomed change and speaks to the field team we had in place. In mid-September, three technicians from Dr. Stokesbury’s lab at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science & Technology traveled to Maine to do three days of drop camera work. They were able to take photographs at all of the stations that were sampled last year and Bailey learned how to work the winch on the scallop boat, F/V Julianne. On September 22, we deployed our Muscle Ridge spat bags, these in addition to four lines on Ocean Point at the end of August. Looking forward to more spat in 2017!

The drop camera surveys were supported with funding from the Patagonia Retail Store in Freeport. The staff from the store also got to come to Hurricane Island over two days this Summer to volunteer their time to help with the project. During that time, we were able to process a number of the shell samples we’ve collected over the years as well as work through some of our spat bags from 2015. They were an incredible help and I think enjoyed their time on the island. We were so thankful for that funding opportunity and wehope they’ll come back next year!

Bailey, Jessie and I engaged 90 students participating in nine different Hurricane Island education programs in the Scallop Project, either through processing shell samples or spat bags. In addition, we hosted 80 people in partnership with the Vinalhaven Land Trust for a morning on Hurricane where they learned about the Scallop Project as well as other initiatives. These were great ways to get the word out about our project!

Currently, I am working on analyzing data from the past four years and reviewing papers that talk about the effect of closed areas on target species. We hope to understand what the effect of the closure has been to date and whether or not we should plan to continue monitoring both the Muscle Ridge and Ocean Point closed areas. Jessie decided to take on a portion of the analysis as an independent project and possibly an honors thesis this year at Colby. Specifically, she is working on analyzing data from our spat bags.

The Stokesbury crew is busy analyzing data from the drop camera surveys and Sarah Kingston, a post doctoral fellow at Bowdoin College, has agreed to start the initial genetic analysis. Stay tuned for a summary of results as they become available!

Aquaculture

We continue to move forward with developing an aquaculture operation on Hurricane Island. We envision aquaculture as an opportunity to integrate our education programs with our research efforts. We renewed our Limited Purpose Aquaculture (LPA) for growing sugar kelp. Bailey and Jenn, our Director of Education, worked with students from Northport Middle School to deploy seed lines that the students had grown in their classroom at the site on Hurricane in October. We also put juvenile scallops collected in our spat bags from Muscle Ridge into two bottom cages where we hope they’ll survive the winter. Bailey and I tagged 100 individual scallops to track their growth throughout the year.

To further support our aquaculture operation, we participate in water quality and phytoplankton monitoring in partnership with the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR). We collect a water sample and a phytoplankton sample on a bi-weekly basis from May through November and send our samples to the DMR lab in Boothbay Harbor. The water quality program, which is a state-wide effort through DMR, monitors for E. coli and the phytoplankton program monitors for biotoxins that can cause Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning and other public health-related problems. Our hope is that through this monitoring, we will be able to reclassify the waters around Hurricane to allow us to consume the species we grow through aquaculture. We will likely not have an issue with E. coli; however, harmful algal blooms could be an issue in the summer months and so, we may have to abide by seasonal closures.

Archaeology

Our Summer 2016 archaeology site

We continue to move forward with documenting the quarry era on Hurricane through archaeology. Fred Koerber, our lead archaeologist and career history educator in the Brunswick school system, gave a talk on Vinalhaven in July. Forty-four people attended to hear a summary of findings-to-date derived from a field week in 2015 and independent research at historical societies and libraries. The research team supported a second field week in early August 2016. We focused our efforts on a site at the north end of Hurricane near Gibbons Point. Fred was interested in determining if the site was the same time period as the quarry town or if it had been an earlier settlement. We spent four days digging and uncovered an incredible number of artifacts including some pieces that point to an earlier settlement, but Fred is planning to spend some time this winter analyzing the artifacts we found and continuing his research before making a determination. Our field week culminated in a second visit to Hurricane in partnership Vinalhaven Land Trust. Sixty-five people came by boat to learn more about the history of the island and our archaeological work specifically. This winter, we are planning to make a long-term strategy for preserving and documenting the island’s history.

The Northeastern Coastal Stations Alliance (NeCSA)

We are continuing efforts to coordinate environmental monitoring with other field stations in the Gulf of Maine. In March 2016, we had our final in-person meeting, which involved field station directors, researchers and others invested in understanding change in the Gulf of Maine. Laura Sewall, from Bates College, and I completed a strategic plan, outlining network actions to move our work forward over the next ten years. Hannah Webber, from Schoodic Institute, and Hurricane Island received a small grant from Maine Sea Grant to implement a pilot project where multiple stations would deploy and retrieve the same data logger and compare the data across our locations. In June, nine stations deployed a HOBO TidBit v2 Data Logger in the intertidal zone to monitor nearshore water temperature. Bailey, our research assistant, deployed the Hurricane logger in the intertidal zone on the south end of the island at Two Bush near the location of Bowdoin’s long-term intertidal transects. In August, we collected the logger, downloaded the data and then redeployed the logger for the winter. It’s a small step in learning how our stations can work together to monitor nearshore change in the Gulf of Maine. Going forward, we plan to develop an intertidal protocol to document the biological community at each of our stations so we can couple the biological data with the abiotic logger data.

The Kelp Ecosystems Ecology Network

Phoebe and Jessie ready to get in the water at Muscle Ridge

We have joined a global network that monitors kelp beds around the world. Kelp beds provide important habitat for a number of species and are susceptible to climate change. A standardized monitoring protocol is used at all sites where this work takes place and the Northeast chapter of the Kelp Ecosystems Ecology Network (KEEN) is housed at Northeastern University. We joined a dive team from Northeastern at the Pemaquid Lighthouse for training on the protocols used to collect data for KEEN. Bailey and Jessie joined Marissa McMahan, a Northeastern PhD student to finish the transects at Pemaquid. We then implemented the same protocol on the north and western side of Hurricane. As part of this work, we deployed two HOBO TidBit v2 loggers to track water temperature throughout the year. Hurricane represents the northernmost site included in the Kelp Ecosystems Ecology Network in the Northeastern U.S.

It was definitely a busy season and now we are transitioning to the winter months, which will include synthesizing data and making plans for next year. Stay tuned for updates throughout the coming months as we analyze and summarize findings.

I was recently given a grim yet beautiful book of Hurricane Island poetry written back in the early 1900’s by Harold Vinal. In it he writes, “The granite cannot speak; it has no voice; and all is silence save for the great sea. Ah, my fastidious sire, if it could!” Yes, if only it could. The granite may not be able to speak, but the artifacts embedded around it certainly can if one pays close enough attention. That was the 5-day task set before the research team during our 2016 Archaeology week; allowing historic remains to speak their stories using archaeology as our coercer. Along with Madelaine, an archaeology student from Washington University, we were guided by Fred Koerber, an archaeologist by passion who has put an impressive amount of work into researching the details of Hurricane Island history and who led our first archaeology program last summer.

Jessie and Fred on the brink of discovery!

Arriving at an overgrown granite foundation and water well on the North End of the island I had previously paid little attention to, we learned that this site only appears in the records a handful of times and is thought to have pre-dated the quarry era. Several flowering trees sit adjacent to a field and just around the corner sit the only 2 headstones found on the island. Questions arose immediately and we brainstormed as a team to determine where we thought best to dig in order to answer them. Was there agricultural activity? Who lived here and when? What can be learned about their lifestyle? The archaeological process began.

Hardness test for buttons to determine what time period they were made in

Digging both in and outside the stone foundation, a plethora of artifacts made themselves known almost immediately below the surface. Bags worth of glass, metal, coal, and animal bones were washed and inventoried from 20 cm sections of dirt. Given the islands history of use with Outward Bound, it is likely that some of the material was deposited during their time on Hurricane, which made the interpretation more difficult than usual. However, some of the artifacts were unmistakably 19th century; buttons, earthenware pottery shards, redware pottery that had shell pieces molded into its fabric, and bricks from the old building. Possibly more interesting were the artifacts we didn’t come across with our trowels. There were no pieces of the ubiquitous smoking pipe found at dig sites elsewhere on the island. Also, nothing gave any indication that women were present here, perhaps indicating it was not a place of domestic activity.

Pieced together shards of an uncovered glass bottle

Pouring over the unearthed artifacts, we pulled together our best interpretations as well as a whole slew of questions. The week culminated with 60 visitors from the Vinalhaven Land Trust island hopping, as they did back in the days of the granite town for theater performances and the like, to see the work we had done. Visitors received a historic tour of the south end and then hiked over to our dig site to see for themselves what was found and what new information our work can tell us about the purpose of this old foundation. It’s exciting to leave the site with more questions than answers and we hope to continue excavating archaeological units this fall. Huge thanks go to Fred for sharing his knowledge, time, and storytelling skills with us. Seeing firsthand some of the secrets left beneath the soil of this island, I have a whole new appreciation for the people who walked these granite shores before us.

Our little guys are growing up! With many of the baby scallops from our spat bags now over 2 cm in size, it’s time for them to begin the next phase of scallop aquaculture. We visited the Darling Marine Center to learn from Maine Sea Grant’s Dana Morse about what that can look like. And what better way to do so than immerse yourself in the process and get muddy!

Completed scallop line ready for deployment

Ear-hanging is one method that can be used to grow scallops once they are about 2 inches across. A hole is drilled in the “ear” or wing of the shell, and gets threaded onto a rope that will be suspended in the water column. The technique comes from Japanese scallop farms, where operations are large scale and far more mechanized, as in this video. While it is a labor intensive process, researchers have been finding improved growth rates using the ear hanging method because water flow and space are unrestricted. Out on Hurricane, we will be using bottom cages for this coming year of growth, but may consider ear-hanging in the future.

Biofouling after several months in the water

Joined by others interested in pursuing scallop aquaculture, we boated around the corner to where Danas’ scallops have been growing in bottom cages, the same kind used for oysters. Upon hauling the cages up, it’s immediately clear how much fouling can occur. The bags were covered in tunicates, but they are easy to scrape off if you don’t mind the squishiness. We took out the larger scallops and brought them into the lab to be processed. The goal of the afternoon was to set up 4 lines of 60 scallops to deploy, each testing a different location of the drill hole. One ear is slightly larger than the other providing more stability for the hole while the other has a spot where drilling does not damage the shellfish’s mantle tissue. Dana will go back in 6 months to see if one method held up better than the others, and remeasure each individual to determine any growth rate differences. Ear-hanging is an exciting possibility for Maine waters. Dana is definitely leading the charge and it was awesome to see how doable it would be for Hurricane Island to carry out the technique ourselves next year!

On Saturday August 13th we finished our last scallop dive day on Muscle Ridge! (If you would like to learn more about what happens on our scallop dives you can read my previous blog post, First Scallop Dive Day!) Finishing our dives is a little bittersweet because dive days have been a blast this year, although I definitely feel a sense of accomplishment for all the work we have done this summer. All in all, we lucked out with great dive conditions and are extremely excited to have finished our Muscle Ridge dive days before late October when temperatures are much cooler. First, I would like to send a huge thank you to the wonderful fishermen Tad, Dan, and Jim who so graciously have taken us out on their boats and work as amazing dive tenders while we are underwater.

Do you think we have enough gear?

Even though we have not yet gone through our data to start the analysis from this season, we have noticed that there are more juvenile scallops this year than in past years. When comparing our survey results to the drop camera results from previous years, we have found that our dive surveys have been less successful at capturing the juvenile population. This could be due to the difficulty of spotting small scallops in poor visibility conditions, or because in past years that size class has not been present at our sites. Finding juvenile scallops at a number of our sites this season has been a positive sign because it suggests that we were not simply missing them because of visibility.

Scallops - we find all sizes while diving!

Thinking back to the first day we dove for the scallop project in early July, I can’t believe that time has gone by so fast. This was my first experience with research diving and it is hard to believe that at one point I was unfamiliar and uncomfortable with the methodology and protocols. Now, completing the scallop transects feel like any other dive. I have found that the biggest difference with research diving is that you go underwater with a purpose, not simply to “see what you can see”. However, this does not mean that our scallop dives have not been fun or that we did not see interesting organisms. I could start a long list, but some of my favorite things I saw were two crabs mating, and some stocked jellyfish. Scallop dive days were a huge focus for this summer—realizing that we finished our last transect is the first of many signals that unfortunately, summer is starting to wrap-up very quickly.

Bailey and I with Hector

In addition to diving for the scallop project, Bailey and I also had the unique opportunity to dive with the Rozalia Project’s ROV. The Rozalia Project is a wonderful group whose mission is to“clean and protect our ocean”. They visited Hurricane Island in late July to help teach two of our programs about their mission. Between cleaning up marine debris and teaching our highschoolers’, they helped us locate a lost mooring in our harbor using their ROV, Hector the Collector. From the deck of the boat Hector was maneuvered onto the seafloor, with the help of his sonar sensors and a small screen aboard the boat, we were able to find the mooring block without too much trouble. The real fun began when Bailey and I dove down to Hector in order to attach the mooring line back onto the block. I had never dove with an ROV before—it was fun to have something else with us while we were underwater. Hector even stayed with us on our safety stop to keep us company and take some fun photos! Diving with Hector was a new experience for me and it was also satisfying to put our dive skills to use in order to help find the lost mooring.

One new addition to Hurricane Island this summer is the establishment of a Kelp Ecosystem Ecology Network site (KEEN). KEEN is a global network of scientists who are assessing the impacts of global change on kelp forests. Kelp forests are an important ecosystem because they provide a complex habitat that supports a high diversity of marine organisms. Through KEEN, scientists across the world are using a standardized sampling protocol to observe kelp forests over time and understand how resistant they are with rapidly changing oceanic conditions.

A rocky shore entry at Pemaquid Point

In late July, Bailey, Cait and I traveled down to Pemaquid Point where we worked with a team from Northeastern University to learn how to conduct the KEEN sampling protocols. Each KEEN site requires that data be taken from four separate 40 meter transects. There are five different protocols that have to be conducted on every transect so there was a lot for us to learn! From the five different protocols, data is collected about the kelp species that are present along with the fish, algal, invertebrate and vertebrate species that are found along the transect. The KEEN protocols require a lot of species identification so brushing up on our ID’s especially for species that were present at Pemaquid but not on Hurricane Island was beneficial. It was also helpful to hear from the Northeastern divers who were familiar with these protocols and get their suggestions and advice for the most efficient way to conduct the dives.

Early morning light before one of our dives on Hurricane Island

Our site on Hurricane Island is the most northern site on the eastern coast of the United States. One of the biggest challenges involved with the KEEN protocols is site selection. Before laying out our transects, Bailey and I dove twice on Hurricane Island to find kelp habitat at a suitable depth. Much of our kelp is shallower than the 8-12 meter depth range required for the KEEN sites but we eventually found a good site off the north end of the island. So far we have completed two of the four transects needed for the site. With each transect the protocols have become easier and our dives quicker. Since these dives are shallow (~25 feet), we can stay underwater for much longer than we can on our deeper scallop dives. On our second transect, our dive lasted 74 minutes, which was the longest dive I had ever completed. In addition to completing the remaining transects, we also have to install temperature loggers at the site to collect temperature data throughout the year. We have two more transects left that and I am looking forward to finishing those this week before I leave the island for the summer.

Becoming a part of KEEN this summer has been a great opportunity to contribute to this global network of kelp studies. As this is the first season for our site on Hurricane Island, this year’s data will be used as a baseline for any changes we see in the future.

On the coast of the North side of Hurricane Island, snuggled between two small white buoys is a kelp aquaculture site. Amongst the waves there is one long submerged line that the students at Deer Isle-Stonington High School seeded with kelp spores last fall. Sugar Kelp, Saccharina latissima, is naturally found in cold Northeastern American waters. In the wild, they need a rocky substrate or coastline to attach their holdfast to.

Ocean aquaculture may become a solution to the degradation our agricultural systems have been facing over the last century. Large-scale food operations with big monocrops, such as corn and soybeans, result in soils that are very susceptible to issues of erosion and nutrient deprivation. When large areas have these issues they become more difficult to work with, and need far more chemical fertilizers, machinery, and water pumped to them, which causes waste and more dependence on local and outsourced aquifers. A driving issue that started the problems in our current food systems is that they are disconnected from the natural environments and seasonal patterns that the individual foods originated from.

Many naturalists have suggested over the years that one possible solution to this disconnect is to simply begin with a local food movement. Putting the foods that grow seasonally in an area into one’s grocery cart can create a powerful community. Building up this community atmosphere fosters a self-sustaining motive, thus keeping the income for local businesses sustainable and maintaining healthy local farm and land practices.

Kelp has been diversifying the portfolios of Maine fishermen and lobstermen during their off-season because it is a crop that grows best in wintertime (once it is established, sugar kelp grows 5-7 centimeters per day as it continues to pump out its spindly blades!) and can be harvested early March through to the early fall season. Researchers at NOAA in conjunction with researchers at Universities and other Institutes have begun to study if the process of photosynthesis in kelp may be a potential aid to issues of ocean acidification. The kelp takes in CO2 from the water, and replaces it with oxygen—much like plants and trees do for our air. If the research studies continue to be positive, and we implement more aquaculture off of our coastlines, we could begin to mediate some of the pollution that is going into our ocean systems. This concept is currently being investigated at Oceans Approved, an aquaculture site in Southern Maine, where they hope to use kelp to locally decrease CO2 around shellfish aquaculture sites. Paul Dobbins of Oceans Approved was the one who graciously came out to help us find the site for our own kelp farm last summer!

Not only is kelp aquaculture good for our coast, and for local economic sustainability, kelp can greatly improve one’s health! This nutrient rich macro alga contains iodine, potassium, calcium, protein, and Omega-3 fatty acids—similar to those found in fish.

Once all of the little microorganism grazers and biofoulers are removed from the blades, kelp is ready to be cooked into many fun and tasty dishes! A few personal favorites I enjoy are: seaweed salad (which is a favorite in many Americanized Asian restaurants), miso soup, super food kale and seaweed salad, as a side dish to fresh caught fish, and a Hurricane Island favorite (even tested by the pickiest of middle schoolers)—chocolate seaweed pudding!

Our educators and researchers make kelp harvesting accessible to our student programs, by first educating them on the process of setting up a kelp aquaculture site and the benefits of kelp while in a lab setting. Armed with this background knowledge, students can then cruise over in one of our boats and harvest the kelp themselves. Teaching the next generation of thinkers why sustainable food systems matter, will someday create a world where they matter in the public eye. Here at Hurricane Island we will continue to promote healthy oceans, and healthy people by growing our aquaculture one spindly frond at a time.

As an early start to our Fourth of July celebrations on the island the Scallop Research Team headed out on Sunday for our first dive day of the season. Sometimes dive days can be hard to plan because of uncertainties in the weather, wind, and swell, so it was exciting that yesterday’s dives went through. Additionally, because of the collaborative nature of this project, local lobstermen take us out on their boats so dive days have to be coordinated around their schedules. Being out with the lobstermen is a great way to connect the science side of the project to the people it is actually impacting. They also have such a wealth of knowledge about the area and ocean, which is extremely beneficial. Plus, Dan was a great DJ!

Research Assistant Bailey Moritz posing with a scallop

Our day started bright and early as we met Dan, the lobsterman who we went out with, at 7am at the dock. Because diving in general requires a lot of gear, plus all of our research equipment, loading the car to haul all the gear to the dock required a 5:30 am wake up. Luckily, it was beautiful morning and we were all excited to get in the water so the early morning was not an issue.

This was my first research experience underwater. Compared to a purely recreational dive, there are many more things that are necessary to think about. In addition to everything you have to pay attention to during a normal fun dive, on our scallop dives we also have to be aware of collecting scallops, staying on track with our transect, taking note of substrate types and other organisms we see, all while maintaining buoyancy with an ever increasing bag of scallops dragging us down and paying attention to how much air we have left. Especially when the tides are running, staying parallel to the transect can be quite the challenge. To record our data underwater we write on waterproof paper that is taped onto a PVC pipe around our arms. I never thought my handwriting could look worse than it normally does but then I put on 5mm dive gloves and realized how wrong I was.

Emptying the scallops we collected on the dive so we can process them on board

We were lucky to have a great tide day and for three of our four dives the currents were not that strong. One of the sites the currents caused us to be swimming perpendicular to the direction of the transect which made that dive a little more challenging than the others. Almost more importantly, we had great visibility, which was a huge relief because at times the visibility can be so poor you have to call off the dive.

Once we get back aboard the boat our work continued to process all the scallop shells. This involves taking a tissue sample for genetic testing and collecting the shells so we can measure growth rates once back in our ‘lab’ on the docks of Hurricane Island. This usually takes up most of our surface interval time but it is long enough to warm up from the frigid Maine waters before we jump back in and do it all over again. It was a great first day and I’m excited for the many more that are to come!

It’s that time of year again, when people from all facets of the Maine fisheries community come together under the Samoset Resort roof in Rockland to make connections, share ideas, and discuss solutions. The place was bustling when I arrived at the annual Maine Fishermen’s Forum in early March, with pockets of small groups greeting old friends and introducing new ones. There are rooms of trade show exhibits and informational tables from groups working up and down the coastal waters. Hurricane Island had a booth and we spoke to potential students about the opportunities out on the island and the role the organizations research plays in the local fishery scene.

I picked up a booklet on seaweed species and took a seat at the first talk, titled Maine’s Scallop Fishery: An Overview and Open Discussion. After recent data was presented on progress towards rebuilding the fishery, a lively conversation began between policy makers and fishermen regarding catch limits and decisions surrounding closures. I knew Maine scallops were good, but I learned that they are considered some of the best in the world and therefore bring in top dollar. It’s an important fishery to keep an eye on, and another seminar delved into the growing potential for scallop aquaculture throughout the state. This was exciting to hear about, as we have been working on the first steps for setting up scallop aquaculture out on Hurricane.

Aquaculture was a clear theme. Emphasis was placed on diversifying fishermen’s on the water income and learning how to switch to or incorporate aquaculture into your business- in one panel, a new oyster farmer gave his account of the transition, while we later heard from a harvester trying out the first clam farming plots in the state in Georgetown. Read about another recent oyster farm here! There is so much excitement surrounding the potential that aquaculture holds in local waters. Of course, the day would not be complete without consuming some seafood ourselves; we all take a break for a fried halibut sandwich and soak in the atmosphere that’s created when you put a ton of people thinking hard about Maine fisheries in one room.

The early morning calm before getting gear onto the boat and setting off for adventure

Phoebe Jekielek, HICSL’s Outreach & Marketing Coordinator (and occasional fieldwork support!) and I wrapped up the 2015 Muscle Ridge field season with our last set of dive surveys off of Jim Wotton’s lobster boat, F/V Overkill. It was an absolutely beautiful day in early October – almost two months sooner than when we finished the 2014 field season (I have to admit that I was grateful that I was not diving in my 7 mm semi-dry wetsuit on November 29th with snow on the ground and a brisk, chilly breeze like last year!). In the Sprucehead Coop harbor, the sea state resembled an August morning – completely glassy with little to no wave action; however the air temperature reminded us that fall had arrived. Mauricio Handler, an underwater videographer from AQUATERRA Films and Darryl Czuchra, joined us for the day and were tasked with documenting the work that we do to make the collaborative scallop project happen!

Overall, it was another great season that could not have been accomplished without the help of a number of people, including, Tad Miller, Jim Wotton, Erik Waterman, Dan Miller, Jamie Kaizer, Skip Connell and Kristofer Koerber for their on-the-water expertise and assistance with dive and drop camera surveys and spat bag recovery and deployment. Dr. Kevin Stokesbury’s lab at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth organized another awesome three days of drop camera surveys from Tad’s dragger, F/V Julianne.

Ocean Point – 6 dive sites completed with two 50 m belt transects done at each site

Drop camera surveys: The Stokesbury crew joined us once again and completed 192 sites (same number as last year!).

Spat Bags:

We recovered 7 of the 16 lines that were deployed in the fall of 2014 inside and outside of the Ocean Point and Muscle Ridge closed areas. Bailey, our scallop project research assistant, counted 17,772 juvenile scallops (Bailey, please come back next season, I promise, we’ll subsample! You can read about the spat bag processing here)

In September and early October, we deployed 4 lines on Ocean Point with the help of the Maine Department of Marine Resources scientists and Marine Patrol and 12 lines on Muscle Ridge.

Shell growth rate analysis:

In January, Rosemary, a Casco Bay High School student, joined us to help analyze the scallop shells we’ve collected over the years. We analyzed approximately 450 – still have quite a few more to go, but we made a good dent! (You can read about Rosemary’s experience here)

Stay tuned for updates about next season. We’re hoping to hit the ground running as soon as we can!

]]>Muscle Ridge Wrap UpUpdate on the Northeastern Coastal Stations Alliance (NeCSA)Caitlin CleaverThu, 17 Dec 2015 20:44:22 +0000http://www.hurricaneisland.net/science-for-everyone/2015/12/17/update-on-the-northeastern-coastal-stations-alliance-necsa523afbaee4b0f0c5f10b6ffe:523b039fe4b09b3c6765f4c6:56731cbb5a566877a05b0511On November 23rd and 24th, we hosted a meeting in partnership with Bates College at the Coastal Center at Shortridge, Bates’ field station in Phippsburg, ME. The meeting was funded by our National Science Foundation Field Stations and Marine Laboratories Program planning grant, which we were awarded to develop a strategic plan for the Northeastern Coastal Stations Alliance (NeCSA). Many of the people who attended the September meeting on Hurricane were in Phippsburg. On Hurricane, we focused on the “what” we should be researching in collaboration to understand environmental change in the Gulf of Maine and learning more about the activities of each institution represented.

At the November meeting, we focused on how to go about implementing a shared research program and work together to implement other initiatives such as a shared undergraduate course that travels to the various field stations or a shared artist-in-residence program. We concluded the meeting without outlining a draft proposal for the next grant deadline in early January 2016; however, we did decide to continue working together and that this type of collaboration makes sense. We plan to meet again in February or April 2016.

A number of other, similar initiatives are underway at different geographic scales and with slightly different focuses. The Integrated Sentinel Monitoring Network (ISMN) is an effort that’s been underway since 2012 and involves a much wider range of institutions. ISMN has created a framework within which NeCSA fits. I attended a few of the ISMN’s workshops around this time last year (you can read about it here). The ISMN is in the process of reviewing comments and making changes to their draft implementation plan. They expect to release the final implementation plan in early 2016. At the Maine state level, the Maine Coastal Observing Alliance (MCOA), formed in 2014, is made up of local citizen groups that coordinate water quality monitoring efforts across Maine’s estuaries. They recently released their first reportand we’re hoping to discuss with them the potential of Hurricane Island and Rockland Harbor becoming additional sites next year.

It's exciting to see efforts being coordinated at the State and regional level to help us better understand change across the Gulf of Maine! Stay tuned as NeCSA continues to develop!

]]>Update on the Northeastern Coastal Stations Alliance (NeCSA)HICSL Attends Atlantic Partners EMS SeminarJosie GatesMon, 14 Dec 2015 16:20:06 +0000http://www.hurricaneisland.net/science-for-everyone/2015/12/11/hicsl-attends-atlantic-partners-ems-seminar523afbaee4b0f0c5f10b6ffe:523b039fe4b09b3c6765f4c6:566af7a569492e4da7bc898aThis fall we partnered with Wilderness Medical Associates to host a booth at the 35th Annual Atlantic Partners EMS Seminar! The purpose of the Seminar is to bring together emergency medical professionals from all over New England, and to offer courses that fulfill continuing education hours.

So what was Hurricane Island Center for Science and Leadership doing there? Because Hurricane Island is considered a “wilderness context” we are very aware of the importance of the local medical services that we have available to us 12 miles out in Penobscot Bay. We are grateful to have Vinalhaven’s Islands Community Medical Services center close by for minor injuries, and luckily have a landing pad on the South End if we ever need to activate Life Flight. Members of our staff are trained in First Aid and CPR, Wilderness First Response, and Sam, HICL’s Director, is an EMT. In short, safety is extremely important to us!

In an effort to run a diverse set of programs on the island we offer a variety of wilderness medical training courses through Wilderness Medical Associates. Everything from Wilderness First Aid to those who simply want to be prepared while enjoying the outdoors, to Wilderness Advanced Life Support for licensed medical professionals. It was our hope in attending the EMS seminar to spread the word to local EMS practitioners about the courses that we provide on Hurricane, especially since as of right now Hurricane is currently one of only two places offering Wilderness Advanced Life Support in the entire United States! We met some incredible people who volunteer with their local fire department and EMS crews. Thank you for all that you do for your communities and beyond!

]]>HICSL Attends Atlantic Partners EMS SeminarEastern Maine Skippers Program kicks off with amazing eventJennifer PageMon, 14 Dec 2015 16:19:34 +0000http://www.hurricaneisland.net/science-for-everyone/2015/12/11/eastern-maine-skippers-program-kicks-off-with-amazing-event523afbaee4b0f0c5f10b6ffe:523b039fe4b09b3c6765f4c6:566afa019cadb615f70abde1It feels like there is so much background to tell you on this story so just bear with me for a little bit as I fill you in.

The Eastern Maine Skippers Program (EMSP) is an amazing effort that provides future commercial fishermen, and other students interested in marine careers, the knowledge and skills needed to be successful in the 21st century landscape. This project is a collaboration among many schools in Maine’s Zone C fishing area and is currently spearheaded by the Penobscot East Resource Center (PERC). Incredible amounts of curriculum and coordination support also come from the Rural Aspirations Project in addition to many other community partners including local fishermen, scientists, fisheries organizations and regulators.

Appropriately called the "spaghetti" model - all the possible paths of the hurricane that threatened to hit Hurricane Island in Oct 2015

Every year the Skippers have a driving question that guides their studies and this year it is a multi-part question: “Who and/or what eats/buys lobsters?” and “What impact can I/we have?” In previous years, Hurricane Island has hosted the EMSP kickoff and that was the plan this year… until…. way back at the beginning of October, a hurricane threatened to head up the East coast and slam into New England much as it had just barreled through the Bahamas. The end result saw the hurricane heading off the coast and across the Atlantic before its effects could truly be felt in the Gulf of Maine. Unfortunately, the specter of a major hurricane was enough to seriously alter program plans on Hurricane Island (funny how that works!). We were not surprised but still sad when we finally got the call from PERC that the oncoming weather was too unpredictable and potentially dangerous to push ahead with the kickoff on Hurricane Island. We all lay on the floor of the mess hall for a while before we got our feet back under us and then proceeded to close up the Island for the fall.

Coming to grips with not hosting the EMSP kickoff

Lobster trap and oil gear relay!

Flash forward to November and our spirits were raised again when we got the opportunity to participate in the EMSP kickoff that was being held on the (much less unpredictable) mainland at the Schoodic Institute. Schoodic was a wonderful host location and the weather was beautiful for students to be outside and moving between buildings for activities. After a brief orientation the day started out with high energy as the students were put into mixed school groups to compete in the world renowned Stern Man/Woman Olympics. Several students were veterans of the program and were eyed nervously by their new cohort as true Olympic threats but everyone gave their all across all events and it was a spirited way to spend the morning for sure.

Students working on the map reading/navigation challenge

Olympics was perhaps a misnomer because the competition ran more like a biathlon… I mean triathlon… I mean…. What do you call a competition where people have to compete in 8 events?! An octathlon? Students cycled through a rope coiling/tying/stacking event, lobster trap pyramid and bait bag filling relays, and challenges in lobster trap part naming/function, mapping/navigation, boat hull identification, marine organism identification, and marketing/accounting. EXHAUSTING!

Students working on their dissection

The rest of the day couldn’t really be called restful by any means as the students moved through a variety of workshops they signed up for and ended the day with a wonderful Skype session with Trevor Corson, who is the author of The Secret Life of Lobsters. I got to run one of the workshops that was a lobster dissection. It is amazing to actually dissect a lobster and realize that just because you cook and eat them all the time or catch them on your boat that there is still soooo much more that you don’t know about them! For instance, did you know that lobsters pee at each other when they fight? Its true! Next time you eat a lobster, look for the urine ducts that face forward under each antenna. Or did you know that lobsters have teeth in their gut? You don’t want to really eat much up in the head region of the lobster but if you really get in there and follow the gut back from the mouth and into the body you will find the grinding teeth that help to break down the lobster’s meal (you might even find remnants of that last meal!). Students had a great time learning new things about lobsters and those were frequently the items students referenced at the end of the day as ‘cool things they learned’ during the kickoff.

All told it was a busy but wonderful day and it was great to keep our involvement with the Skippers going. I'm already excited to see how they address their questions this year and looking forward to continuing to work with EMSP, PERC, and Rural Aspirations even more in the future!